


buoyancy

by weatheredlaw



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Drowning, F/M, First Kiss, Swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 18:52:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18036911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: Erend doesn't know how to swim. Aloy can fix that.





	buoyancy

**Author's Note:**

> uh i wrote this today because teaching people to swim is cool and intimate and useful

Eighteen shards go tumbling from her hands, and Aloy is only quick enough to grab a few before they fall into the river. “Damn,” she mutters, before looking around for Erend. He’s hunched over a Scrapper, tearing out a few parts she asked for. Aloy’s never had a problem taking machines apart, but when Erend tags along to clear out the fields around Meridian, she doesn’t really _mind_ having him do the dirty work. He’s usually more than happy to.

“You okay?” he calls to her, his head _inside_ the thing. When it appears, his face is smeared with grease and blaze, making him look like a child coming in from the mud. Aloy presses her lips together and looks away.

“Dropped a few shards in the river.” She glances down at her hands. “Well, most of them, actually.”

“Ah. Better wade in then, before you lose ‘em.”

She pockets what she has and asks, “Do you mind?”

“Hm?” Erend stands, wiping grease on his pants.

“Do you mind jumping in?”

He frowns. “Uh, well I don’t...I mean I _could_ , I guess—”

From the corner of her eye Aloy spots a trout. Erend stammers on as she dives in without a second thought. There’s a merchant in the city who’s been giving her a hard time over armor modifications and would _kill_ to have fish skin, and she doesn’t have time to argue about who gets wet. Aloy snags it from the water along with the rest of her shards before coming back up for air and treading water for a minute. It’s cold, but it feels good after tussling with the machine. On land, Erend is watching with strained curiosity, like he has a question, but isn’t sure how to phrase it.

She splashes him. “You wanna get in?”

He opens his mouth, works it a few times like the trout she’s just tossed at his feet, then shakes his head. “Nah, you enjoy yourself. I should, uh. Probably head back. Night patrol.”

Aloy nods, hauling herself out of the river. Nora leathers dry quick, so she’s hardly damp by the time they get back to Meridian with their respective prizes — she lets him have the lens, he hands over most of the shards and other parts he salvaged.

“Thank you,” she says, and doesn’t mind when their hands linger together as Erend passes off the Scrapper’s heart. “It was good to have some help.”

“Liar,” he mutters, teasing. “You just like looking at my backside.”

“Hardly.”

“Well, either way, get some rest,” he says, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll see you soon, I suspect.”

“Oh, I’m sure.”

He chuckles and shoulders the Scrapper lens with ease before heading toward the garrison. Aloy watches him go, bottom lip caught between her teeth. He’d seemed uneasy at the thought of going in the water. She wondered if it was because of the armor, but by then he’d stripped out of most of it to get deeper into the machine.

The thought does not occur to her until later, _much_ later, as she’s getting ready for bed in her little apartment near the palace, that Erend — stout, _stubborn_ Erend — might not even know _how_ to swim.

 _Well_ , she thinks.

_I can fix that._

 

* * *

 

“Can you swim?” she asks, and Erend _chokes_ on his breakfast while some of the other Vanguard start chuckling.

“I’m _sorry?_ ”

“She asked if you could _swim_ , Cap.”

“Garit, I _swear_ —”

Aloy sighs and sits next to him. Erend’s men snicker and angle themselves away. “Can you?”

“Uh, sure. Sure, I can swim.” He shovels more food in his mouth. Aloy pushes his plate away. “ _Woman_ —”

“Erend.”

He tosses his fork down and scrubs a hand over his face. “ _No_ ,” he says. “I cannot swim. I cannot swim because Oseram don’t swim.”

“Nope,” Garit says. “We _sink._ ”

“Can _any_ of you swim?” Aloy asks incredulously.

“Uh, Kirit can. Hey, Kirit!”

Kirit is only at the other end of the table, so the entire biscuit Garit gets lobbed at his head seems deserved. But, it’s true, of them all only Kirit can swim and even that, he says, is hardly passable. “I can float,” he offers. “But that’s about it. Oh, and tread,” he adds happily.

Aloy turns back to Erend. “You need to know how to swim.”

“I don’t think so.” He grabs his biscuit and gets up from the table. “Morning patrols, get to it boys.”

The Vanguard stand with a collective groan and disperse while Erend goes over to his desk and starts moving things around, obviously looking for _anything_ to do other than participate in this conversation.

“Erend—”

“You know, Aloy, I don’t really have time for this right now.”

She snorts. “That’d be a first.”

He glances up at her and scowls. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that any time I come in here with some dumb job or something bordering on _stupidly_ dangerous, you’re all in.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve never asked me to voluntarily _drown_ myself, so I don’t know what you expect.” He unearths some kind of city map and goes to pin it to the wall. “I don’t have _time_ to learn how to swim.”

“It’d take a day.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Erend come _on_.”

He slams his hands on the desk. “ _Dammit,_ Aloy.”

The room goes very quiet.

Aloy looks at her boots. “...Alright. I understand.”

Erend sighs. “I’m...sorry,” he says. “I just…”

Aloy moves toward him. “Erend, did you lose someone?”

He laughs. “Not everything has some _tragic_ explanation, Aloy. I just...swimming was one of those things I’d never really even _understood_ until I came here. The Carja _love_ swimming. They love just...luxuriating in that bullshit all day long. And I don’t hold it against them, I really don’t. It’s just that all the years I could have been learning to do this _one thing_ that could have made me understand them, I spent running from my shithead dad and killing Jiran’s crazy zealots.”

“Well.” She reaches out and brushes the hair from his forehead without even thinking.

His cheeks go a very pleasant pink.

“I could teach you,” she says quietly.

“Take a lot longer than two minutes,” he says, drawing away from her touch, though it’s not...a bad thing.

Aloy smiles. “I’ve got the time.”

 

* * *

 

“Absolutely not.”

“Erend, come on.”

“It’s like a hundred feet deep.”

She sighs and looks into the pool. They’d climbed one of the plateaus outside the city where she knew there was a nice, clear pool for them to practice in, someplace where no one would be watching and they wouldn’t run into a stray Snapmaw.

“It’s like _six_ feet deep.”

“Yeah. I don’t see the difference.”

“Look.” She starts peeling off her leathers. “Either we do this, or we don’t.”

Erend eyes her and the water apprehensively before sitting down to tug off his boots. “I don’t like it,” he mutters.

Aloy rolls her eyes, but she watches as Erend shucks off his shirt and pants and wades into the water. They aren’t _naked_ , but it’s certainly more of one another than either has ever seen and Aloy’s suddenly rather self-conscious about her breastbind, about Erend’s tattoos and the proximity of their bodies.

“Here.” She reaches out and he draws closer. “We’ll work on floating.”

“Ha. That’s funny.”

“No, I’m serious. Push toward me and I’ll help you roll to your back.”

“Aloy.”

“ _Erend._ ”

He scowls. “Fine.” He takes a few steps back before gently pushing himself through the water toward her. Aloy moves his head to the side, then pushes at his shoulders to force him belly-up. Erend sputters in the water and sits up, coughing and scrubbing his face.

“What was _that?_ ”

“I was trying to flip you over!”

“Well _warn_ a guy!”

“I _told you_ what I was going to do!”

He scowls. “This is stupid, I’m done.” As he moves to get out, Aloy grabs his hand and yanks him back toward her.

It does what she’d intended — gets him back into the water.

But it also pulls them flush together, and they are suddenly _very_ close.

She watches water drip from his nose.

“You fought the end of the world with me.”

“Frankly,” he says, finally moving back, “I’d rather do that again.”

“It’s just _water_ , Erend.”

He sighs. “Yeah. Yeah I guess so. Why do you care?” he added.

Aloy huffs. “Because I’d prefer you didn’t _drown_.”

“Aw, she likes me.”

“We’ve established that, dummy. Now come on, let’s float.”

 

* * *

 

It doesn’t happen the first day, or even the second — though she’d sworn it’d only take one — but on the third day Erend is finally comfortable enough on his back that Aloy feels like she can start to let go.

It’s a strangely intimate process, getting there. They start with his head on her shoulder, while she keeps one hand on his forehead and the other on his back. When he’s comfortable there, she moves around him, so the top of his head is pressed against her chest. She still keeps one hand near his face, the other between his shoulders, and for a while they just talk. She asks how Avad is doing, what it was like going back to the Claim to bury Ersa.

They talk about easier things, too, like a new vendor in the market who sells these weird fruit drinks, or if more Nora will make their way outside the Embrace.

Eventually, she steps back, extending her arms and feeling him relax.

On the third day she lets go, and for a few minutes he just floats, before taking a shuddering breath and sinking underwater and coming up with a gasp.

“I did it,” he says, and grins.

Aloy laughs. “You did it.”

“I _did_ it.”

“Yes!”

Erend _howls_ and grabs her up, spinning her around and kissing her cheek. It’s a surprise, but Aloy lets it happen. He releases her and splashes water across the pool before asking, “What’s next?”

Aloy’s heart _skips._

 

* * *

 

“You’re taller than me, Erend. You can _touch_ here.”

He frowns and moves toward the center of the pool. “Feels weird.”

“Well, it’s water. It always feels weird.”

“Different than floating,” he says. “Like...like I weigh something, but it’s like it doesn’t _matter_.”

Aloy had never considered that before. She reaches out to draw him closer. “Just take deep breaths,” she says. “You’ve done really great. I’m proud of you.”

And _oh_ there’s that pink again. She’s starting to get used to it, and the thought makes her stomach flip.

They spend the rest of their time learning a very simple breaststroke, and Aloy commends Erend for only wiggling his eyebrows once.

“You could probably not drown,” she says, as they lay out under the sun to dry. Aloy’s brought a blanket and Erend is laying on his stomach, face pillowed on his arms.

“What a relief.”

She smiles. “What I _mean_ is that we should probably take a break. I need to head into the Embrace to check on some things.”

Erend raises his head. “Ah, so it’s time.”

“Yeah.”

He sighs and rolls over. “Eh, I knew we wouldn’t be allowed to keep you forever.”

Aloy nods. “I have a few things to do. I’ll be back.”

“I’m sure,” he says.

Staring up at the clouds, Aloy doesn’t mind that his hand finds her own, and she doesn’t mind the way their fingers slot together, one a question, the other an answer.

 

* * *

 

They go for one last swim, but Aloy’s run out of things to teach.

Erend floats on his own and she floats alongside him.

Hands find one another.

“Do you ever think about not knowing each other?” she asks.

“Sometimes,” he says. “Why?”

“I just...I think about how you were the first one to tell me about so many things. And how I’ll always remember your voice when I think of them.”

He snorts. “Like _red raids?_ ”

“Well...yeah.”

“Oh, _Aloy._ ” Erend sits up and draws her close.

“Don’t say my name that way.”

“Which way?”

She scowls. “You know what I mean. I’m not a child.”

He glances between them. “No,” he says. “I know that.” His hand comes up to push wet strands of hair from her face. “I always wish we’d met under better circumstances. I _always_ wish you hadn’t seen me the way you did. But then, I think...we _did_ meet that way. You really saw me that day, when I was...when I was so low.” He presses his forehead against hers and Aloy closes her eyes.

“And yet,” he says gently. “Here we are.”

Aloy brings her hands up behind his neck, holding them close. “ _Here we are_ ,” she breathes, just before he kisses her.

It’s cold, until his tongue presses into her mouth and then it’s very _warm_. Too much teeth, is what she thinks about herself, before he draws back and slows things down.

“Easy,” he murmurs, but Aloy doesn’t _want_ easy.

She wants spark.

She wants heat.

She _wants_.

This is nothing like swimming. Erend’s hands are all over her, wide and coarse and _bracing._ Every kiss is filled with something nameless, but Aloy is certain they will know what to call it soon. He moans against her mouth and she moans back, an easy language between them. Aloy lets her head fall back and Erend kisses down the length of her throat, nipping at her jaw before he comes up and kisses her ear.

They are flames in a field, wild and unchecked and Aloy is certain the valley they are is going to burn.

 

* * *

 

She spends the night with him, held close while he keeps them both afloat.

Being alone, she reasons, is like drowning. She doesn’t consider this a rescue, but it is _nice_ to be cradled, to be embraced and whispered to while their clothes dry by the fire and she can hear his heart.

“...My mother drowned,” he says.

Aloy looks up. “What?”

“She fell into a river and no one could get her out. She drowned.”

“...But you said—”

“I know what I said,” he murmurs against the top of her head. “But that’s what happened.”

Aloy pulls herself closer. Rost had taught her to swim. It had been just like anything else he taught — something to keep her alive, to keep her prepared, always.

“I’m sorry,” she says.

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago,” he adds.

“Still.”

“Yeah.” He kisses her forehead. “Still.”

“I wish you’d told me.”

He sighs. “I never really tell anyone. No one she was with knew how to swim. Seemed unfair, you know. To go that way. And I didn’t want to remember her like that. My mother was...my mother was a good person. She wasn’t always there for me, she couldn’t be, the Claim takes a lot from a woman. Never really thought that was fair,” he adds. “But she did her best by us, and she worked hard. She was a good wife, and a good mother. Wasn’t her fault.”

Aloy doesn’t ask what.

“Anyway.” He draws back for a moment and puts a finger under her chin to lift her gaze. “She’d be happy I’d learned something new,” he says. “Something that might keep me alive.” He kisses her. “You should teach my boys.”

“I’m not going to do that.”

Erend chuckles. “Well. I’ll work something out, I suppose.”

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @ weatheredlaw


End file.
